Alex Massie Alex Massie

An American PMQs?

Peter Suderman endorses the idea that life in Washington would be considerably improved if the American president were subjected to some kind of equivalent of Prime Ministers’ Question in the House of Commons. By life, I mean, of course, the quality of political entertainment. And given the dreary nature of most of what happens on the Hill – or in the White House Rose Garden for that matter – one can see why many Americans find the idea appealing.

And yet, it’s hard to see quite how any American equivalent would work. PMQs is not, it should be said, quite what many Americans think it is. That is to say, it is more a matter of style than substance. As someone who thinks politics could do with more, not less, heckling and cheering and booing I’m quite in favour of this. But one ought not to pretend that the weekly interrogation is designed to shed much light upon the government’s latest imbecility.

On the one hand, you have the government’s back-benchers asking planted questions along the lines of: “Does my Right Honourable friend agree that he his handling of this latest crisis has set an example that is the envy of the world and does he further agree that the party opposite have no answers to this or any other issue and that, not to put too fine a point on it, they also propose taking away ponies from every child in the country. Will the Prime Minister assure the House that he is the best man for the job and will he also remind the country that we on this side of the House are the only party that is, and always has been, pro-pony?” And on the other, of course, you have opposition MPs just trying to look smart.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in